53 posts from February 2009

February 28, 2009

Below are interviews with Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, who wrote "Someone to Watch Over Me," Friday's episode of "Battlestar Galactica." I've also posted a few of my thoughts below that Q&A.

As was the case last time, this week's installment of the "Battlestar" Q&A's has an Extra Special Bonus Attraction. Star-Ledger critic Alan Sepinwall also asked questions, and answers to both our queries are below.

I also highly recommend visiting the Web site of "Battlestar" composer Bear McCreary for more information about this episode. McCreary has also been posting excellent interviews with the cast of "Battlestar," so check out his site if you can. Another great resource for "Battlestar" fans: Galactica Sitrep.

Update: The links to McCreary's account of making this episode are here, here and here.

"Battlestar" fans should be sure to keep an eye on "CSI." At least two people associated with the Sci Fi show will make appearances in an upcoming episode of the CBS drama, for which Weddle and Thompson now write. For more on that, look here.

February 27, 2009

David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, who wrote the Feb. 27 episode of "Battlestar Galactica" as well as many other episodes of the Sci Fi show, shared some fun news about the episode of "CSI" they're filming at the moment (both men now write for the CBS show).

With "CSI" executive producer Naren Shankar, Weddle and Thompson penned "A Space Oddity," the April 16 episode of "CSI." It concerns a murder at a sci-fi convention, and frequent "Battlestar" director Michael Nankin is helming it. But the sci-fi connections don't stop there.

Kate Vernon, who plays Ellen Tigh on "Battlestar," will appear in the episode. Ron Moore, executive producer of "Battlestar," will also make a brief appearance, and Weddle promises "other
surprise cameos for sci-fi fans."

Shankar, Moore, Weddle and Thompson all have long experience in the world of genre TV. Among the credits on their various resumes: "Farscape," "Roswell," "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone." They all wrote for "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (which is my favorite "Trek" series), and Shankar and Moore also worked on various other "Trek" projects, including "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

So is it too much to hope for a Leonard Nimoy cameo? Or for Laurence Fishburne to say, "Live long and prosper?"

Launching a broadly successful TV show is possible. No, really, it is.

We hear a lot about the fractured media environment, and most of us—network suits and civilians alike—have accepted the idea that smaller audiences are the new norm.

Yet consider “The Mentalist,” the show starring Simon Baker as a sham psychic turned crime investigator. The drama, which bears all the hallmarks of the efficient CBS procedural factory, regularly brings in between 18 million and 20 million viewers. Partly due to the success of that drama, as of early February, CBS' overall viewership had actually increased compared to last season.

So are the other broadcast networks—whose overall ratings have declined—going to unleash dozens of “Mentalist” clones over the next year or two? Will we be living on a steady diet of miraculous cures on medical dramas and good guys catching bad guys on crime shows?

Forgive the tinge of irony: Nobody's knocking procedurals, or dramas in which one story is told over the course of one hour. Episodes of television that don't don’t require a degree in physics or an encyclopedic memory can be a beautiful thing. You'll find no bashing of "Law & Order" or "The Closer" here.

But in the last couple of years, “The Wire” has closed up shop, as have “The Sopranos,” “The Shield” and “Deadwood.” The future of “Friday Night Lights” is in doubt, and in a few weeks, “Battlestar Galactica” ends. “Mad Men” and “Damages” have ferocious fans but low ratings. And in a few months, NBC—the network that gave us “The West Wing”—is handing over a third of its weekday real estate to Jay Leno.

What are the odds that compelling dramas such as these will get made by any network—broadcast or cable? Can it be that, as a piece in Entertainment Weekly asserted, the new Golden Age of television is ending?

Damon Lindelof, co-creator of “Lost,” isn’t worried. Asked whether a show such as “Lost” could find a home today, he responded, “Yes, I think it would. At least on some networks.”

He added that he has high hopes for pilots such as ABC's "Flash Forward" and NBC's "Day One," which are currently in production and are "are every bit as serialized and genre-tinged as 'Lost.'"

Although the TV writer/producers and executives interviewed for this story were somewhat optimistic about the future for challenging TV, several said there is a new note of cautiousness at the networks.

“I don’t think you can make any kind of sweeping generality based on any collective thought process" at the networks. What they are reacting to more than anything these days, is to the dwindling ad dollars,” said Tim Kring, creator of “Heroes.” “This has a huge ripple effect on every move they make. And my guess is ... that makes the climate a little more risk-averse than it was a couple of years ago, simply because they can’t afford the number of failures.”

As is the case with the beleaguered music industry, television networks are responding to rapid and revolutionary changes in how audiences consume their products. In the TV industry, that’s having an effect on what gets made.

"Sometimes early on, being a little more episodic allows more people into the room. And as the show goes on, by its nature, it might find itself becoming a little more serialized," said Matt Cherniss, executive vice president of programming at Fox. "But to abandon the desire to tell stories that are, essentially, the hero’s journey and to watch that journey take place—I think that would be irresponsible. There are a lot of versions of that are successful, whether it's a soap or a medical drama. They're difficult to do, but that's not a reason not to do them.

Fox debuted the standalone procedural "Lie to Me" this season, and it is also developing "Masterwork," an adventure pilot from "Prison Break" creator Paul Scheuring. "Masterwork" won't be nearly as serialized as "Prison Break," however -- it'll involve a weekly adventure as well as an ongoing quest.

"We're trying to have our cake and eat it too. We're trying to tell really fun, engaging stories over a long period of time but not do it in a way that's intimidating to the audience," Cherniss said.

As Fox attempts to find the next “House,” it’s also trying to cater to fans of Joss Whedon (“Angel,” “Buffy,” “Firefly”), J.J. Abrams (“Alias,” “Lost”) and Ronald D. Moore (“Battlestar Galactica”), who have created some of the most acclaimed dramas of the new Golden Age.

But when it comes to these writer/producers’ new Fox ventures—“Dollhouse,” “Fringe” and “Virtuality,” respectively—finding the right balance between procedural storytelling (think "Law & Order") and ambitious, "mythology-based" storytelling (think "Lost") hasn’t been easy.

Last year, the pilot for Whedon’s “Dollhouse” was reshot and production was shut down for a short time so that scripts could be recalibrated. After all that, the ratings for the adventure drama, which debuted Feb. 13, have not been impressive.

But as Cherniss notes and as Whedon has said in interviews, the reshooting of the pilot was done at Whedon's request, not the network's insistence. And discussions with him have centered on how to make the show more accessible, not how to change its core concept, Cherniss said.

“We put it on Friday night because we thought that would be the best place for it to grow and allow it to be what it is, rather than trying to shoehorn it into being some other show just to fit a time period,” Cherniss said. “We have to let it play out and see how it does over the long haul.”

The two-hour pilot for “Virtuality,” which was written by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor of “Battlestar Galactica,” is currently in limbo at Fox. This thought-provoking show (the script of which can be found online) follows a group of young space travelers as they engage in an exploration mission and star in a reality program along the way. It asks challenging questions about identity, media manipulation and the fragility of relationships.

Fox executives screened "Virtuality" in January, then went forward with “Glee,” a soap from “Nip/Tuck’s” Ryan Murphy.

February 26, 2009

The following post discusses Wednesday's episode of "Lost," "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." It's best if you've seen the episode before proceeding. By the way, I'm using some pictures from "316" below because ABC's press site did not post any "Bentham" photos yet.

February 24, 2009

Below is a feature on "Fringe." If you're a big fan of the show, you might want to read all the way to the end; the last part of this post contains a lightning round of questions with executive producer Jeff Pinkner regarding burning "Fringe" questions. Thanks to those who contributed questions for Pinkner on my Twitter micro-blog. Be aware this story discusses plot elements of various episodes, including the most recent episode of the show. You can see most episodes of the show on Hulu, by the way.

Like the Observer—the strange man who keeps popping up during investigations then disappearing—“Fringe” has mysteriously vanished.

The Fox drama has made plans to leave New York, where a tax credit for TV and movie production is likely ending, and move to Vancouver, if it comes back for a second season. (There's more on that move at the end of this story.) Even before the show got ready to leave the Big Apple, however, the sci-fi flavored thriller vamoosed from the Tuesday TV schedule.

But “Fringe” will be back on April 7. And before the show’s first season ends, we will see The Observer again, according to “Fringe” executive producer Jeff Pinkner.

“I can’t say when,” he added.

Below is a clip of The Observer from "The Arrival":

That’s not the only dangling dangling question. In the show's most recent episode, which aired Feb. 10, viewers saw that FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) may have unexplained abilities, thanks to a drug she was given as a child. Pinkner wouldn’t confirm or deny that she has those abilities, but he did say that when the show returns, the third episode will delve into her personal history.

But more importantly, who—or what—is Mr. David Robert Jones (the terrific Jared Harris)?

The last we saw of him, the mysterious and seemingly powerful Jones, who had been orchestrating various bizarre and deadly crimes that Olivia and her team investigated, appeared to be dying while in the custody of FBI. But then he escaped from the hospital—through a giant hole in the wall.

“He’s still human,” said Pinkner. He cackled a bit, indicating that there is much more to be learned about Mr. Jones, who will also return before the season is over.

That character has been a great addition to the show, which has been both ambitious and inconsistent. Some episodes in "Fringe's" first season have been distressingly predictable and formulaic: Olivia would become aware of evidence of a strange phenomenon, which mad scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble) would just happen to have researched decades ago. Walter and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) would exchange wisecracks, and Walter would use his old research to crack the case, which would be solved amid much chasing and guns and action.

Not that it wouldn't be a treat to watch the enormously talented Noble, in character as as the alternately comic and tragic Walter, read the phone book (and possibly eat it). But some weeks he and his banter with his son have been the main draw on "Fringe," which was otherwise melodramatic and overheated in the early going.

But there have been some excellent episodes later in the show’s run, notably “The Arrival,” which featured the freakishly compelling Observer, and the suspenseful Feb. 10 episode, in which Jones played a large role.

And the show’s Dec. 2 episode, “Safe,” showed a different (and welcome) side of Dunham. Hanging out in a bar with Peter (Joshua Jackson), she went from being a businesslike, square FBI agent to being a woman that you’d actually want to spend time with.

One thing “Fringe” hasn’t had a problem with is shocking and suspenseful openings. It’s just that what has followed wasn’t always as tantalizing.

“We found that, absolutely, early on, we were falling into the trap of—the tease would be fantastic. And then we would too quickly answer it and [reduce] the tension,” Pinkner said. “And we’ve tried to course-correct and have the tease promise” questions that don’t get answered right away.

The goal now is to “have the energy of the show get bigger as [an episode] goes along,” Pinkner said.

"We're learning how to tell this version of a detective story. It's not really a police procedural. There are elements of that. But it's an incredible mish-mash of genres. I think we're getting better at finding our way through these stories," he added.

The show's writers and producers, which include J.J. Abrams ("Lost," "Alias,"), have a better sense of what makes a good "Fringe" case of the week, Pinkner said, and they're focused on giving each episode a satisfying "beginning, middle and end." The fact that the Bishops and Dunham have gotten to know each other -- and that the writers have a better grip on the characters and their relationships -- has helped.

Still, one of "Fringe's" goals is to be unsettling. If you saw the episode with the giant, slug-like, single-cell creature slithering out of a man's body, you know what I mean.

"This show, in many ways, is about primal fear. Our bodies and our minds are, at the end of the day, unknowable," Pinkner said. "The ways our bodies betray us can be terrifying."

The ultimate goal is to make "Fringe" a viral phenomenon -- though for viewers, not one that involves slimy, slithering creatures.

"Oddly, for a show as massively promoted as 'Fringe,' it feels a little bit like a grass-roots, word-of-mouth TV show," Pinkner said. "We had, as our intention, to be one of those shows where you overhear people saying, 'Oh my God, you're not going to believe what happened on 'Fringe' last night.'"

The CW has renewed several of its shows. Here's the roster of what is definitely coming back next fall: "Supernatural" (yay), "Smallville," "Gossip Girl," "One Tree Hill," "Gossip Girl" and "America's Next Top Model," which has never, to my knowledge, produced even one top model, but who's counting?

The network is also bringing back the freshman soap "90210." What's the verdict, readers, is this a guilty-pleasure soap or a total waste of time? I haven't watched it in ages, so I want to hear from you if you have been checking out the "90210" remake.

UPDATE: CW has also gone forward with its remake of "Melrose Place"; for more see this L.A. Times story.

There's no news yet on whether these CW shows will get another season: "Privileged," "The Game" and "Everybody Hates Chris."

As noted here, the "Privileged" finale airs Tuesday. I'm rooting for this show to get another season, not just because it can be so charming and funny but because there aren't enough shows with female characters that I want to spend time with.

And as creator Rina Mimoun says in this interview with the Futon Critic, JoAnna Garcia really is a very talented actress and can do anything the show's writers throw at her.

Richter is joining "The Tonight Show," which O'Brien takes over June 1, as the show's announcer, NBC announced Tuesday.

Richter, a veteran of Chicago's improv scene who was O'Brien's "Late Night" sidekick for seven years, will also take part in comedic bits on the show, NBC said.

"Andy is one of the funniest people I know and we've maintained a close
friendship since he left "Late Night," said O'Brien. "We have a proven
chemistry that will be an incredible asset to "The Tonight Show." I'm
looking forward to working with Andy on a daily basis again,
particularly since he owes me $300."

NBC's Tuesday release is below. But before that, one of Richter and O'Brien's more memorable "Late Night" moments:

February 23, 2009

"Privileged" airs its first-season finale Tuesday on the CW, but Chicago viewers should be aware that the show will air later than normal on WGN-Ch. 9.

"Privileged" airs in Chicago at 11:30 p.m., after the Bulls game. There will be another airing of the last Season 1 episode at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

And speaking of Chicago connections, Oak Park native Kathy Griffin guests in the episode as the wedding planner assisting Marco (Allan Louis) and Keith (David Monohan) with their nuptials. There's plenty of other drama between Will (Brian Hallisay) and Megan (JoAnna Garcia), Megan deals with a family crisis (of course), and Rose is planning a trip to the wilds of Minnesota over spring break. Say what?

A full description of the episode, which was penned by series creator Rina Mimoun, is below the clip, but beware: It contains spoilers. For a previous feature on the show, look here. And for TV Gal Amy Amatangelo's "Privileged" thoughts as Season 1 comes to a close, look here.

There are no children in Monday's episode of "Chuck." Well, there is a brief flashback to one character's childhood.

But that overly dramatic, shameless headline was written with one goal in mind: To get you watch tonight's "Chuck" (7 p.m. Central Time, NBC).

It's so funny, it's so sweet and it's just such a good time. Even if you think you don't like "Chuck," give it a chance. If you do like "Chuck," I think you'll like "Chuck vs. the Best Friend" a lot. I did. It might be one of my all-time favorite episodes of the action-spy-dramedy.

As you may have read by now, "Chuck" has lined up lots of good guest stars for the second half of the season: Tricia Helfer, Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula, among others. And the storylines co-creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak have lined up for those actors sound pretty sweet (for more on those upcoming episodes, look here).

Given the big things they have planned, I expected "Chuck vs. the Best Friend," which delves into the friendship of Chuck (Zachary Levi, pictured at right) and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) to be a whimsical and goofy foray into the world of the Buy More, where both guys work (Chuck's side job: Saving the world with all the secret spy information that was accidentally downloaded into his brain.)

And there was a lot of goofy fun; as Buy More slackers Jeff and Lester, Vik Sahay and Jeff Krinsky did especially great work in their supporting roles. But I didn't expect such a tightly plotted episode, one that wove together Chuck's spy shenanigans with the Buy More world so well. I don't think it spoils anything to say that the episode starts out with Chuck helping Morgan deal with the aftermath of his breakup with Anna (Julia Ling), another Buy More employee. Of course things go terribly wrong -- but sometimes in guffaw-inducing ways.

In general, and definitely in this episode, what "Chuck" does so well is unite the high and the low. I'll admit it, I enjoyed the scenes of a shirtless Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin). There are lots of other brain-candy things to enjoy on "Chuck" -- the pop-culture references, the fights, the sheer goofiness, the possibly dangerous weirdness of Jeff, the possibly murderous grunts of Casey (Adam Baldwin).

But underneath all that, the show pays attention to the mechanics of storytelling and doesn't just try to coast on the comedy. If it did just coast on the funny and there were no emotional stakes or depth to the characters, it would probably still be a worthwhile show. But given the level of attention paid to all those other things -- emotion, suspense, plotting, character -- "Chuck" ends up being one of the TV scenes greatest pleasures at the moment. (Pictured at right, Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker, Chuck's spy handler.)

Other shows may have more dramatic impact, but I can't think of one that's nearly as fun, except for "Burn Notice" (and happily, Monday's "Chuck" episode contains a plot that would fit right in on that USA show). I know I write about this show a lot, but that's for a reason: I greatly look forward to watching the show every week, and aside from a couple of smallish plot quibbles I had, I was certainly not disappointed in Monday's episode. Far from it.

If I have time Tuesday, I'll try to do a new post on what I loved about Monday's "Chuck," or maybe I'll just leave my thoughts in the comment area of this post. Either way, I hope you enjoy the hour as much as I did.

I will leave you with this thought: Jeff and Lester's band, Jeffster!, rules.

One more thing: Here are NBC's summaries of the next three "Chuck" episodes:

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